Saturday, 23 February 2013

2013 Annual Jacqueline du Pre Charity Concert

The annual Jacqueline du Pre Charity Concert in aid of the Musicians Benevolent Fund takes place on Thursday 5 March 2013 at the Wigmore Hall. Guy Johnston, cello, and Tom Poster, piano, will be playing sonatas by Debussy, Bridge and Britten. The concerts take place annually in memory of Jacqueline du Pre and raise money for musical and medical charities.

Johnston, who is a former BBC Young Musician, is the Artistic Director of the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival. He has recently secured the funding of his Tecchler cello via a dedicated charitable trust.

Johnston has a regular duo partnership with Poster. They will be playing Debussy's late sonata, Frank Bridge's sonata which dates from 1913-17 and displays Bridge's despair at the war and the state of the word. They will also play a group of smaller pieces by Bridge plus the sonata by Bridge's pupil Benjamin Britten. Britten's sonata for cello and piano was written for Rostrapovich, the first work that he wrote for him and in it Britten tests the technical boundaries of the instrument.